Means for securing pipes to plates



B. BROIDO.

MEANS FOR SECURING PIPES TO PLATES- APPLICATION FILED MAY 24. 1920.

1,368,783., Patented Feb. 15,1921a F/GZ mas UNETEQ STeATS career states.

BENJAMIN BBOIDO, OF PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO LOCOMOTIVE SUPERHEATER COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELA- WARE.

MEANS FOR SECURING PIPES TO PLATES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 15, 1921.

Application filed May 2%, 1920. Serial no. 383,758.

To all whom it may concern-.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN BRoIuo, a citizen of the United States, residing in Perth Amboy, in the county of Middlesex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Securing Pipes to Plates, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is concerned with the problem of securing a pipe to a plate; and the solution proposed by-me is of quite general application, but is of particular utility in connection with steam superheaters.

Steam superheaters of the type I have in mind comprise a header or headers and tubular elements or units attached to the header and communicating with its interior. While the ends of these elements are sometimes expanded into the header walls or secured to them in some other and often rather permanent manner, best practice in dicates a connection that permits the unit to be readily removed and subsequently reattached. .This has been quite generally recognized and the so-called ball joint connection has gone into extensive use. The present invention contemplates an improvement of this ball joint, whereby the manufacture of the unit withtheball joint ends shall be facilitated and the product itself improved.

The invention is illustrated on the accompanying sheet of drawings, Figure 1 showing a portion of a superheater header, partly in section, with two superheater unit ends according to my invention screwed to it; Figs 2 and 3 showing on a larger scale the old and my improved form respectively of the ball end, together with the immediately associated parts.

According to common practice the ends of the superheater elements or units are secured to the header in pairs, each pair being held in place by a single bolt. The two ends constituting a pair may belong to the same or to different units. The arrangement is well known and is shown in Fig. 1. The two ends 11 communicate each through an opening 2 with the interior 3 of the header 4. They are held against the header b Y means of the clamp 5 and the bolt 6. washer 7 is interposed between the clamp and the enlarged end of the unit.

This arrangement is well known and need not be described at any greater length. The

usual form given to the enlarged ball end of the unit and to the parts directly cooperating with it is illustrated in Fig. 2. The surfaces 8 and 9 of the enlarged end are segments of the same sphere and have the commoncenter C. The surface 10, which the surface 9 engages, is usually made not spherical but conical; while surface 11 of the washer 7 with which surface 8 contacts, is commonly made spherical to the same radius as that of surface 8 itself. It will be clear that considerable movement of the ball end about center C is possible without impairment of the joint between surfaces 9 and 10; but the movement must occur about point C.

In the manufacture of these ball joints as in Fig. 2, no particular difiiculty is experienced in upsetting the metal of the pipe to the required thickness at the very end to make seat 9; but it is a task of considerable difliculty to effect the upsetting of the pipe material down'farther, for surface 8. The principal advantage of my improvement is that it avoids the necessity of this operation.

In producin the ball end according to my invention, t e end is upset as heretofore, and surface 9 is given a spherical shape with C as center. But beyond the upsetting at the end, pipe 1 is left of its original dimension. A sleeve 12 bears against the undersurface of the upset end, the lower end of the sleeve being given the shape of a spherical segment 8 centering at C. ThlS surface 8 is engaged by the surface 11 of washer 7. The two surfaces 9 and 8 being concentric, the action of the two together and the freedom of motion about center are substantially the same as in the integral form of Fig. 9. The difficulty of manufacture, however, is materially reduced.

It may in some cases be desirable to leave less play between the sleeve. 12 and plpe 1 than is indicated in the drawing, or even to surface of the upset portion which engages v the beveled seat and the lower end of the sleeve being spherical segmental surfaces to the same radius with a common center.

2. In apparatus of the class referred to, the combination of a header having two orifices with beveled seats and an opening through the header between the two, two pipe ends each with an upset portion adjacent to its end and engaging the beveled seats, a sleeve embracing each pipe end adjacent to the upset portion, a washer on each pipe end engaging the lower end of the sleeve, a single clamp engaging the bottom of both washers, and a bolt extending through the clamp between the two pipe ends and through the opening of the header, the head and nut of the bolt engaging the top of the header and bottom of the clamp respectively so that a tightening of the nut draws the pipe ends up toward the beveled seats; the surface of each enlarged end engaging the'beveled seat and the lower end of the sleeves engaging the Washers being shaped to concentric spherical segments of equal radii.

3. A ball end for a ipe, comprising an upset portionof the plpe itself at its endand a sleeve encirclin the pipe adjacent to said upset portion, t e upper end of the being shaped into concentric spherical, segments of equal radii. I

4. A ball end for a ipe, comprising an upset portion of the pipe itself at its end and a sleeve encircling the pipe adjacent to said upset portion.

' BENJAMIN BROIDO.

- upset portion and the lower end of the sleeve 

